


divine intervention

by Spellthief



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: 5+1 Things, Book 5: Thick as Thieves (Queen's Thief), Book 6: Return of the Thief (Queen's Thief), Canon Compliant, M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:02:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27196888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spellthief/pseuds/Spellthief
Summary: Five things Costis couldn’t explain (and one that he could).
Relationships: Kamet/Costis Ormentiedes
Comments: 5
Kudos: 63





	divine intervention

**Author's Note:**

> ROTT was cool and all but severely lacking in Costis content. my life is suffering

**1.**

The king came to see him in the evening, much later than Costis expected. He was absent his usual entourage of guards and attendants, though Costis supposed they might be waiting in the hall. The king slowly eased himself onto a stool, moving gingerly, as if his head hurt.

Costis spoke first. "That was a cruel trick you played on Kamet."

"It was," the king conceded. He smiled, tight-lipped, and gestured vaguely with his hand. "He would not have gone with you otherwise."

He wouldn't have. Kamet had made his true feelings painfully clear once they'd arrived in Attolia.

"You seem close," the king continued conversationally. "Poor Kamet was ready to fall on his sword for you."

Kamet wouldn't fall on his sword. He hated swords, hated even to carry a knife. He was a free man now, but he still had a slave's aversion to arming himself. Costis thought back to the day they had been attacked by the Namreen, the way Kamet had wept afterwards. That was the first time that Costis understood what it meant to be a slave.

"Metaphorically," the king added, seeing Costis's grimace.

"It's not like that," Costis said tersely. He thought agonizingly of their last conversation. "I doubt Kamet wants anything to do with me anymore."

"No?" The king seemed surprised. "How interesting. I'll want a full report later. For now, just the highlights."

"Of my relationship with Kamet?" Costis asked, puzzled.

"No, you idiot," the king said affably. "The mission." He leaned back on the stool so that it was balanced precariously on two legs, looking for all the world like one of Costis's unruly younger cousins. "You're late, you know. You better have a good excuse for it."

That was as close as the king would come to admitting he had been worried. Costis suppressed a smile and dutifully summarized the entire journey, all the way from their departure in Ianna-Ir to their arrival in Attolia. If the king had any more clever comments, he kept them to himself. He listened silently to the whole account, sometimes closing his eyes and tilting his head back, by all appearances asleep. Costis knew better.

When he was finished, the king lifted his head. "Thank you, Costis," he said. "That will be all."

The king stood up and moved to leave, but hesitated in the doorway. "Who was the wine merchant?" he asked, curious.

Costis shook his head. "I don't know, my king."

"But you have a guess?"

It was too absurd to say out loud.

"Keeping secrets, Costis?" The king was amused, not angry. Costis stared back at him helplessly. Old gods were one thing, Mede gods were another.

"Very well," the king said. He smiled pleasantly. "I won't make you tell me."

The king swept out of the room, leaving Costis once again alone with his thoughts. He stared at the doorway for a long time after the king left. There had been a knowing twinkle in the king's eye, and Costis wondered if he already knew.

* * *

**2.**

Relius frowned. "Kamet's account was different." He flipped through the papers on his desk, frowning at the disorder, until finally he found the page he was looking for. "He said you encountered a gentleman from south of the Isthmus?"

Costis hesitated. "You've spoken with Kamet?"

"You haven't." It wasn't a question. Relius glanced up at Costis with a maddeningly paternal look. "Lover's quarrel?"

Costis hoped his face didn't give away his irritation. "I've been on leave," he said blandly. "I was visiting home." Though of course Relius would have already known that.

"You sail out tomorrow?" Costis nodded. "You're worse than Teleus," Relius said, smirking.

Costis flushed at the comparison. He began searching for an excuse to cut their meeting short, dreading further interrogation of his personal life, but Relius had already grown serious again. "In Zaboar," he continued, returning their conversation to the topic at hand, "Kamet said you met a man on a camel. You called him Ennikar."

His memories of Zaboar were muddled and hazy, more like a dream than anything real, but Costis could clearly remember seeing Ennikar. He'd seen Immakuk, too, and Shesmegah, and half a dozen other gods besides. But he'd been delirious with fever at the time. They weren't real. They _couldn't_ have been real.

"I don't remember," Costis lied. "I was feverish," he added truthfully, seeing Relius's doubting look.

"Yes," Relius agreed reluctantly. "Yes, I understand."

Relius didn't understand. The gods were a matter of superstition to him. He had heard the rumors about the king, of course, had himself seen impossible things, and still somehow did not believe. In a way, Costis envied him.

"Now," Relius continued, "about Sukir…"

* * *

**3.**

It was a strange relief to be traveling again. Costis had grown restless during the weeks spent at his uncle's farm, where his days were filled with idleness and little else. The rest had been much-needed, of course, but he was glad to have purpose again.

He was glad to have reconciled with Kamet, too. Costis had grown accustomed to his presence, and it had felt strange to be apart for so long. He had worried, at first, that things would be strange between them, but they quickly fell back into their old patterns. Any lingering bitterness between them was quickly forgotten. They were sharing a cabin aboard the _Eagle_ , and though Kamet had been embarrassed and apologetic about it, Costis was plenty happy with the arrangement. The two bunks were separated by a space barely big enough for them to walk through, and Costis was close enough to hear the sound of Kamet's breathing at night. These quiet moments in the evening, when they were silent but not yet asleep, were immensely comforting to him.

"The well," Kamet said, out of nowhere.

Costis, who had been drifting off, jerked suddenly awake. "What?"

"The well," Kamet repeated distantly. "You fell into it."

"I did." It was a strange thing to bring up now, all these months later.

"And you lived."

"Yes, I lived." Costis frowned, concerned now. "Are you feeling well, Kamet? Do you need a doctor?"

"I'm not delirious," Kamet said, mildly annoyed. "I'm just thinking."

Costis turned his head to one side to look at Kamet in the dark. "I am thinking," Kamet repeated, "about something I heard once about Eugenides."

"The king?"

"The god." Kamet rolled over to face him. "It is said that his devotees have certain… superstitions. They believe that falls cannot kill them."

The king had said something similar once. "Where did you hear that?"

"Around." Kamet made a dismissive gesture with one hand. "One hears many things in the palace."

"You sound like a spy already," Costis said.

Gods-all, but Kamet could be vain sometimes. He was preening like a peacock at the praise, and Costis nearly laughed out loud. Kamet quickly schooled his face back into careful neutrality when he noticed Costis grinning at him.

"I was thinking," he said again, "about how lucky you were to survive that fall." He looked at Costis once more, something almost shy in his gaze. "A funny coincidence, no?"

"Funny," Costis agreed, privately sure that it was no coincidence at all.

* * *

**4.**

Even after all this time, Costis still found the queen intimidating. She rarely addressed him, directing most of her questions instead to Piloxides or her minister of war, Pegistus, but on the rare occasion that her gaze swiveled in his direction, Costis instinctively stood a little straighter. When someone brought up the subject of Zaboar, she turned to face him directly. Costis felt his heart stop.

"You traveled through the pass," the queen said. "How wide is it? What was its condition?"

Costis took a moment to gather his wits before answering. "We did not take the pass, my queen. We hiked another route through the Taymets."

He was, for a moment, irrationally terrified that this answer would anger the queen. But she accepted it wordlessly with a nod and turned back to her council. It was Sounis's magus who objected to the report.

"Another route through the Taymets?" he rumbled. "Surely that's impossible. The Taymets are impenetrable. If such a route existed—"

The king of Sounis stopped his magus with a wave of his hand. "Another time, magus," he said. There were more pressing matters to be discussed. Scholarly inquires would have to wait.

The discussion quickly moved on, turning instead to the question of provisions. Costis tried not to let his relief show on his face. He couldn't have explained their miraculous journey through the Taymets even if the queen ordered him to.

* * *

**5.**

"You're riding off to your death, you do realize?"

"I can't leave him, Aris." Costis checked his saddlebags one last time, making a mental tally of his provisions. "Besides, you'll all be marching off to war soon enough. I'd be in just as much danger if I stayed."

"Not _just_ as much danger." Aris crossed his arms. "You're going off all alone, to a foreign land full of enemies, with no plan and no backup."

"I did it before, didn't I?" The bags were all in order. Costis still felt like he was forgetting something, but he couldn't think of what. Ignoring the growing sense of unease deep in his belly, he swung up onto his horse. "I saved Kamet once. I can do it again."

Aris was still unhappy. "I never understood how you did it the first time."

"The gods," Costis replied seriously.

Aris, who believed in his gods but had never seen them, misunderstood Costis's answer. "Then I will make a sacrifice in your honor," he said, and reached up to clasp Costis's arm. He was smiling, but it was forced. He knew, as Costis did, that they were unlikely to ever meet again.

"Be blessed in your endeavors," Aris added, and for a moment his smile was genuine. "That's the way the king says it, right?"

* * *

**\+ 1**

The abandoned shepherd's hut had been a lucky find. The small flock of sheep at the market had been an even luckier find, and Costis had used half of his emergency funds to purchase them. Costis only wished that he'd thought to purchase a book as well. Shepherding wasn't so different from standing guard, when you got down to it, but Kamet found the work dull.

On the far side of the pasture, Kamet was sitting hunched over on a rock, staring out miserably towards the sea. He seemed lost in thought, paying barely any mind to the sheep wandering around them. Costis walked over and sat down beside him.

"What's on your mind, Kamet?" he asked.

"It's nothing," Kamet said dismissively. Costis gave him a stubborn look. "Nothing important," he amended.

"Tell me anyway."

Kamet sighed. He shifted so that he was sitting nearer to Costis, and Costis automatically lifted one arm. Kamet ducked under it, settling comfortably against Costis's side, head resting back against his chest. "You won't like it," he warned.

Costis smiled. "Tell me anyway," he said again.

Kamet paused a moment, gathering his thoughts. "If Laela had not lied to me," he said slowly, "if I had known the truth, I would not have left Ianna-Ir with you."

Costis knew. But out of mutual agreement, or perhaps mutual fear, they rarely spoke of it.

"Do you wish that you had stayed with Nahuseresh?" Costis tried and failed to keep the worry out of his voice.

"No," Kamet answered immediately, unequivocally, and Costis felt an immediate rush of relief. "I stayed because I was afraid. I had only deceived myself into believing otherwise.

"But," he continued delicately, "it was an idiotic plan."

"Kamet!" Costis exclaimed, more surprised than offended. Kamet smiled sheepishly.

"I said you wouldn't like it." He patted Costis's leg affectionately. "But I'm not wrong. Eugenides sent his favorite—"

"I'm not," Costis objected immediately, but Kamet only rolled his eyes.

"—his favorite," he repeated sternly, "into the heart of the Mede Empire, without telling you anything about his plan or how valuable I was. We could have died, Costis."

"We didn't," Costis pointed out.

"We would have," Kamet said, "if not for the wine merchant."

Months ago, Kamet had finally explained everything to him—his lie at the docks, the strange behavior of the wine merchant, their near-misses at Sherguz, first on the riverboat and later at the inn. It was an improbable string of coincidences that Costis might not have believed if he had not known his dear Kamet so well.

"We could have just as easily died on the road to Zaboar," Costis said, "if we hadn't stopped in Koadester first." They would've walked straight into the arms of the Namreen if not for the warning of the leatherworker's slave.

"How fortunate, then," Kamet remarked, "that the one-eyed onion farmer was so insistent we visit the stepwell."

Costis hummed in agreement. "The firewood in the Taymets was lucky as well."

"And the dog that broke your fall."

"Godekker," Costis said, and laughed at Kamet's sour expression.

"We could still die," Kamet said, growing serious again. They were deep in enemy territory, with no hope of escaping back to Attolia. And they'd heard the rumors before they left Reyatimi—that Nahuseresh was with the army, and he was searching up and down the coast for a Setran scribe.

"We won't," Costis said confidently. Kamet gave him a skeptical look, but he remained stubborn. "We won't," he said again.

"You have such faith in your gods," Kamet said distantly.

"Your gods, too."

"So," Kamet acknowledged.

By this time, one of their sheep had wandered too far off from the rest, and their conversation was briefly halted while Costis ran off to go rescue it. When he returned, Kamet said quietly, "I still do not know how you made it back to Roa. You must have been followed."

"I was," Costis confirmed.

"And the army—their scouts must have spotted you."

"They did."

"So? How did you manage it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Costis put his arm around Kamet once again and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. "Divine intervention."


End file.
